Best Wicket Keeper-Batsman in Test Cricket

[irottev]

He was injured? Both the blows happened in the 3rd ODI and he didn't play the last 2. I don't think he was injured during any games other than the 3rd ODI.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

1) KKD is an excellent gloveman. He is, ability wise, easily the best keeper in India. He doesn't play because he isn't as good a batsman and cannot offer as much to the team as Dhoni does (Captaincy, plays well under pressure, match-winner and very flexible with the bat), but he is still a very good keeper. He's also an excellent fielder, last time he was in India colours (T20 WC) he fielded superbly in the slips. You cannot deny he is an incredible keeper.


2) McCullum is very good to seamers, but like Boucher, I'm not fully convinced how good he is to spinners. MSD is different, he's safe against the quicks, but brilliant to spinners, and has really improved.

3) Prassanna is easily the best in the list - very tidy. They say the greatest keepers go unnoticed, and that's what he does. I've seen him keep in a few matches, and he never makes a mistake. Never. He's nearly flawless, and that's even while keeping to Murali and Mendis, or standing up to someone like Vaas, or even just keeping to Fernando and Malinga. Does an excellent job.

 

[Cricketman]

I love you zorax.

 

[shravi]

I'm insulting your heritage?

oh my god. You're freaking hillarious. You have actually looked at that photo in his sig, right? It's highly disrespectful, if anything is.

Dude, calm down. It was an Indian flag when I saw it, I didn't know it was anything different before that.

 

[King Pietersen]

2) McCullum is very good to seamers, but like Boucher, I'm not fully convinced how good he is to spinners. MSD is different, he's safe against the quicks, but brilliant to spinners, and has really improved.

McCullum keeps to 2 fantastic spinners, in Vettori and Patel. He's been almost flawless whenever I've seen him to Vettori, who is one of the smartest and most intelligent spin bowlers in the world. His subtle changes in pace, his fantastically disguised arm ball and he gets decent bounce, and McCullum keeps fantastically to him. I'd say McCullum is the 2nd best out and out keeper in the world behind Prasanna Jayawardene, other than James Foster anyway, but he's not playing Test cricket so can't be included.

I'm actually going to change my choice tbh. Haddin's a good all-round keeper batsman, but McCullum's the better keeper, and one of the most exciting batsmen in world cricket atm. I'm therefore giving my vote to McCullum.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

I don't know. Vettori and Patel don't spin the ball miles, don't get huge bounce, and he hasn't kept to them on any minefield pitches. They both just rely on subtle changes in flight and pace, and Patel occasionally bowls the big turner, but they both are a far way from Murali/Harbhajan/Kumble/Mendis/Kaneria kinda difficulty.

 

[Dr. Pepper]

I'm surprised at how highly Haddin is being rated. I haven't seen him enough to say much but from what I've heard, he's been pretty poor for Australia. Hmm...

 

[King Pietersen]

Pretty poor? His keeping in Australia has been more than decent, and he's probably the best batsman out of the lot, averaging 38, which is impressive considering his disappointing start. He did very well against New Zealand and South Africa in the Tests. He's been far from poor.

 

[Dr. Pepper]

Yeah I heard he started off poor but then I don't know what happened afterwards.

 

[dizzwell]

Pretty poor? His keeping in Australia has been more than decent, and he's probably the best batsman out of the lot, averaging 38, which is impressive considering his disappointing start. He did very well against New Zealand and South Africa in the Tests. He's been far from poor.

Dude, have you been watching the cricket in Australia this summer? Brad Haddins keeping was a lot of things ugly, sloppy, POOR, disapponting, certainly not decent, especially considering the reputation he came into the side with. Maybe from the way you like to throw them around, you are relying on statistics to tell you the story and as big a role as they play in this game they don't tell it all.

 

[tomie89]

hes a better keeper than u

tomie89 added 0 Minutes and 51 Seconds later...

hes keeping was only realy poor in india

 

[irottev]

I don't know. Vettori and Patel don't spin the ball miles, don't get huge bounce, and he hasn't kept to them on any minefield pitches. They both just rely on subtle changes in flight and pace, and Patel occasionally bowls the big turner, but they both are a far way from Murali/Harbhajan/Kumble/Mendis/Kaneria kinda difficulty.

You're wrong. Patel can get a bit of turn, but turn isn't that difficult to keep it. Vettori varies his pace a lot and does get extra bounce on suitable pitches. There's a youtube of Vettori bowling to Pietersen in the last test series played in England and the ball bounces up heaps and McCullum takes it clean as a whistle. He rarely ever fumbles the ball. He's the best keeper i've seen for sure. Even with a sholder injury he's better than most.

Anyone who considers Brad "my gloves are constantly in front of the stumps" Haddin to be a good keeper is stupid. He frequently misses legside deliveries, concedes byes and fumbles the ball. He's a good batsman in form, very average keeper.

 

[Cricketman]

Well those guys are used to Matt Prior so I don't blame them.

 

[Howsie]

You're wrong. Patel can get a bit of turn, but turn isn't that difficult to keep it. Vettori varies his pace a lot and does get extra bounce on suitable pitches. There's a youtube of Vettori bowling to Pietersen in the last test series played here and the ball bounces up heaps and McCullum takes it clean as a whistle. He rarely ever fumbles the ball. He's the best keeper i've seen for sure. Even with a sholder injury he's better than most.

Anyone who considers Brad "my gloves are constantly in front of the stumps" Haddin to be a good keeper is stupid. He frequently misses legside deliveries, concedes byes and fumbles the ball.

Yeah Brad Haddin is average.

 

[stefan]

Boucher dropped chances and let a heck of a lot of byes through in the Australian test and ODI series. He used to be a great keeper. I dunno if he's getting a bit old. I actually thought De Villiers did better with the gloves in the last 2 ODIs.

When did he miss any catches?? Certainly don't remember him dropping any during the test series.